This is a question that is asked so frequently. Everyone has a different opinion on it. Many bands feel that they are just not big enough to have a website, whereas others feel that Facebook or Myspace is an adequate enough platform for them to present their music on.

I would argue that this is simply not enough.

Yes, social media is great and allows you to reach people in a far more personal way. Yes, you can have some degree of customisation on these services and yes, they are easy to use. But do they look professional? Are they completely 100% your own?

The answer to that is no, they are not.

When you set up a profile or page on Facebook/Myspace/social-network-of-your-choice, you are essentially renting this space from them – and since this is free, they can change the terms and conditions when they want to. Hell, they could even delete your profile for any reason. This may be unlikely, but it could happen!

People fall out of love with social networks all the time. Look at Myspace, for example. Back in the day, it was huge. Seriously massive. Now? Almost everyone has migrated over to Facebook. How many of us can say we’ve spent more than 2 minutes on Myspace in the last month? Anyone?

On the flipside, a website is a constant space on the web which is yours. If you own that domain and have a custom design that clearly represents your band, it shows that you are dedicated and serious about what you do.

Your website can provide as much or as little as you want it to. You can sell merchandise and music directly from it, or you could choose to use a third party site for this. You can   all of your social networking profiles in once place. You can simply have it act as a landing page which links all of your online presences.

I would suggest using it as your main hub, integrate your social media profiles and continue to use them separately.

There are so many reasons that a band should have a website. Professionalism is the number one reason in my opinion – it looks great when you have a domain name on your posters or flyers, and anyone you pass your details onto will be far more impressed to see a .com address as opposed to a facebook.com or myspace.com one.

If you want to chat about what ElectricKiwi can do for you, get in contact! I’m more than happy to answer any questions or provide quotations if you’re interested in setting your website up.